Lucky
by S.A. Tsukasa
Summary: Sometimes it takes a horrible experience to learn a valuable life lesson.


Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo, Game Freak and Pokemon USA. When trick or treating in their neighborhood, remember to be extra nice to Satoshi Tajiri and Shigeru Miyamoto! Give THEM candy, just for making our lives what they are today. Go ahead and TP PUSA's place. Just, try not to get caught, okay?

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Author's Note: Still dedicated to AnimeDutchess and everyone in palletshipping group. I guess also to my mother, who used to always tell me stuff like this could happen. And sadly, these kinds of things really do happen much too often.

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This is exactly why you're always supposed to have a chaperone on Halloween.

Never go out alone at night. Although this message it a little late (by a whole day ) it is something everyone must always remember.

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Ash walked down the long streets of Pallet Town. He was a four year old Grim Reaper with no chaperone. His mother was working overtime tonight and she needed the house to herself and her special guest.

Ash could see the older kids running around with their pillow cases full of candy. Their costumes were very scary looking, but the houses they went to looked even scarier!

Halloween was practically Pallet Town's national holiday.

Ash wasn't afraid of any old houses!

Not even if they had haunted pumpkins, or broken windows...

Or...screaming doors...or ugly witches that wanted to eat you...

Ash gripped his empty pumpkin pail closer to his chest. Maybe he could go trick-or- treating when the sun came up again?

He looked at the haunted house closest to him. There was horrible, high-pitched scream rising from the inside of the house. A witch with a broken nose, and spiders in her long gray hair, was beaconing him to come closer.

Yeah, of course that was a great idea! Go home and wait for Mr. Sun!

Happy with his astounding decision, Ash skipped down the road, back to his warm and loving house.

"Hey, little boy..."

Ash stopped dead in his tracks. The voice sounded as if it was _right behind him_.

He was not going to look behind him. He was just going to keep walking home.

"Hey little boy, I have something for you..." the voice was soft and deep. Ash didn't like how the voice seemed to wrap him up in its invisible arms. It felt like he was suffocating...

Ash ran as fast as his little legs could take him. He had to get away from the voice!

He had to get home and into his bed!

Heavy footsteps were following the little boy. They didn't seem that far away either. Was the man right behind him?

The other trick-or-treaters were busy trading candy with one another. The adults were talking amongst themselves, probably swapping Halloween stories.

"Help!" Ash screamed, his voice breathy from all the running, "Help, there's a scary guy following me!"

A hand reached out from the darkness and latched on to Ash's arm. Ash screamed louder, earning the attention of most of the people in the surrounding area.

The man lifted Ash, keeping one of his hands firmly over the little boy's mouth.

The adults looked at the man strangely. They were sure that they never saw that man in their neighborhood before.

Ash struggled against the man. Surely, the grown-ups would see that this scary man was a bad guy or something.

"Oh I'm sorry to bother you," said the man in his strange, soft voice, "my nephew here got scared and ran away from me."

Ash couldn't believe what he was hearing! He wasn't this man's nephew! He had never seen this man before in all his short five years. Ash struggled harder against the man's strong arms, but they refused to let him go.

'_Don't believe him!'_ he tried to scream through the man's hand, but it only came out as a muffled screech.

The man continued to tell his lie. "I was trying to get him into my car," he gestured towards the white sedan near the town's exit, "when he saw the costume I was hiding in the back seat."

The adults all turned towards the car and saw what the man was talking about. There was a life-sized zombie costume in the back seat of his car. It's resemblance to a corpse was freakishly eerie.

The adults seemed satisfied with his answer so, they turned back to what ever wild conversation they were having.

Ash screamed and kicked against his capture. How could they fall for that? Why would they believe him?

He screamed as loud as he could, but nobody bothered to spare him a second glance. As far as they were concerned, Ash was just being a disobedient child.

They were actually feeling sorry for the man!

The man was getting closer to the car. Anybody could see the automobile from a mile away, but not many would bother to give it a second glance.

Ash struggled as hard as he could, but his little kicks couldn't do much.

The man took out his keys and jammed them into the car door. He opened the door and threw Ash beside the zombie costume. Ash tried to jump out of the car, but the man slammed the door shut.

"_Ash!_" yelled a little boy. It was too far away to reach them now.

The man didn't waste anytime. He opened the driver's seat door and jumped in.

Ash couldn't believe his eyes. Running towards them, was a little boy in a pirate costume.

"_Gary!_" Ash yelled back. He tried to scream louder, but he was quickly losing his voice.

Behind Gary was Professor Oak, running as fast as he could towards the car.

The man swore loudly and started up the ignition. The car started up smoothly and picked up speed. In moments, Gary and Professor Oak were nearly out of sight.

Ash screamed once more and tried to open the car door.

The man ignored him and drove off into the night.

Ash beat his hands against the windows. He couldn't scream anymore, couldn't think.

The zombie fell on top of Ash, causing the boy to panic even more. It felt too real to be just a costume or a dummy or whatever it was.

Blood was seeping out of the zombie's eyes and dripped into Ash's black hair.

"Do you like her?" the man asked. He didn't take his eyes off the road. Ash whimpered in the back seat.

"I wanna go home!" he cried.

"Neither do I." the man replied, completely ignoring Ash's outburst, "But I like you, Ash. I like you much better than that crazy woman."

Tears were streaming down his face. He wanted his mommy...

The man continued his rant. "She used to be my wife." He said, "Not anymore. She was no fun. She never wanted to do it, just because she was pregnant."

Ash didn't understand what the man was talking about. He was talking like a crazy person. Rather than voice his concern, he stayed quiet and tried not to cry too loud. He kept staring out the window, hoping to see Gary or Professor Oak again.

Were they going to find him?

What if they didn't? What was the man going to do to him?

The car was slowing down near an isolated area. It didn't even look vaguely familiar. There were tall trees all round. Ash could see a few pokemon peeking out from the bushes, trying to understand what a car was doing in their home. The car came to a complete stop in front of a large tree stump. The man turned around, his dark eyes almost glowing in the night.

"We're going to have lots of fun Ash, I'm sure of it." He murmured.

He reached out to grab Ash's hair, but the boy ducked beneath the passenger seat. The corpse tumbled after him, nearly crushing his small body. The man tried to pull the corpse off, but it wouldn't budge.

The pokemon were become restless in their hiding places. It was as if they knew something was wrong. A few rattata ventured out of their hiding and surrounded the car. Their little noses twitched as they sniffed the night air.

Ash couldn't see them and the man didn't give them a second thought.

He finally managed to pry the corpse off of Ash. The little boy shrieked and ran towards the other end of the car. He tried to open the door, but it was still locked.

The man chuckled as he watched Ash struggle with the door.

"Oh Ash, can't you see we are meant to be? I've waited so long for this moment—much too long. I knew as soon as I saw you that we were meant to be together."

Ash pressed himself against the car door. The man crawled inside, getting closer and closer to the trembling boy.

"You were so cute in your school uniform, Ash. You were so cute, just standing there with your friend. I think you look even cuter with your Halloween costume." The man grabbed Ash's face with both hands and pulled the boy closer to him. Ash kicked against him and pounded his little fists on the man's arms.

"Imagine how much cuter you must be without your silly costume."

Did the pokemon, sensing that was the Chosen One was in danger, step up to help him?

Did the corpse rise up from the dead and attack the man, killing him to make sure he never killed again?

Did Ash's mother come out of the bushes, shocking the man to let go of Ash and run with his life?

Sadly, no of that happened.

That night, a grown man nearly had his way with a four year old child.

Nearly.

The man had only succeeded in going as far as to remove the top of Ash's costume, when Officer Jenny and her squad came crashing through the woods in their police cars.

Professor Oak, Delia Ketchum, and Gary followed the police in their own car.

The man was arrested on the spot.

He came away calmly and wished Ash a goodnight. He also asked the boy to visit him while he was held in prison.

Gary ran out of the car and reached Ash before his mother could.

Ash furiously wiped away his tears when he saw Gary come near him. He stood beside Officer Jenny as she examined Ash for any outward signs of abuse. A blanket was draped over his tiny shoulders.

He tried to smile for the older boy. Gary bopped him over the head.

"What was that for?" Ash asked sullenly.

Gary bopped him on the head again.

"You were supposed to wait for me, Ashy-boy. We were supposed to go trick-or-treating together!" Gary yelled. The brunet looked as if he had been crying, but Ash didn't feel like pointing that out right about now.

Mrs. Ketchum ran to he son and wrapped him up in a warm embrace.

There was no need for words now. All that could have been said was already learned in the most brutal of fashions.

But sometimes, children do not escape from these situations in time. Ash was one of the lucky ones.

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Author's note: Writing this story t his scared the crap outta me. I hope it's all right with you guys. And as my super awesome pokemon buddy SatoshiLuver so kindly pointed out: **The buddy system solves everything!**

Seriously people, that's what its there for.

Review, flame, whatever.


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